1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a ball grid array connector, especially a ball grid array connector having a positioning structure for retaining corresponding solder balls in position.
2. The Prior Art
Through hole type connectors have been used for decades. However, these kinds of connectors need the soldering pins thereof to pass through soldering holes in a printed circuit board thereby occupying two sides of the printed circuit board. Ball grid array (BGA) connectors are used to replace the through hole connectors because they only need the soldering tails of the connectors to be directly soldered on the printed circuit board via a solder ball. Therefore other side of the printed circuit board can be used for other components. For a BGA connector, a solder ball has to be soldered on the tail of the connector in advance and then soldered on the printed circuit board via a baking procedure. A conventional BGA connector 5 as shown in FIG. 6 comprises a housing 52 having a soldering face 521 and a plurality of contacts 51 received therein (only one is shown). A soldering tail 511 of the contact 51 extends beyond the soldering face 521 and comprises a bottom 512 to which a solder ball 23 is in advance soldered. The solder ball 23 is then soldered on a conductor pad 31 of a printed circuit board 30. It is difficult to properly position the solder ball 23 to the solder tail 511 because the bottom 512 of the solder tail 511 is only a relatively small plane. Therefore, some of the solder balls 23 (not shown) are apt to be attached to one edge of the soldering tail 511 which in turn damages the coplanarity of the solder balls 23.
It is requisite to provide an additional positioning structure to solve the above problem.